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A Ray’s Home Run Is a Sweet Splash of Drama

Jose Lobaton sank a game-winning home run into a tank of rays at Tropicana Field on Monday. His reward was a Game 4 and ice cream.Credit
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays were tied at 4-4 on Monday, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, when Jose Lobaton came to bat. What happened next exceeded even a child’s wildest imagination. Lobaton crushed a game-winning home run that landed in a tank of cownose rays in right-center field.

Lobaton’s reward, for extending the Rays season in the American League division series to a Game 4 on Tuesday was plenty of ice cream, as much as he wanted.

When Lobaton hit his first career home run in July 2012, Luke Scott, the Rays’ designated hitter, brought him ice cream in the dugout. Since then, it has become a tradition. When Lobaton hit two winning homers in August, he received more treats. After the second one, Manager Joe Maddon gave him a vat.

Lobaton’s blast off the Boston closer Koji Uehara was improbable. He had been almost automatic this season. It was the first home run he had allowed since June 30, a stretch of 37 appearances and 401/3 innings in which he allowed only one earned run. His teammates called him Ninja. Clay Buchholz suggested he could throw a complete game in 65 pitches. His fastball and his splitter inspired awe; it was a splitter he threw to Lobaton. Maddon heard the crack of Lobaton’s bat. He looked up, Maddon later said, and “the ball is going towards the tank, which nobody hits home runs there. Nobody does. How about that? It’s incredible.”

Maddon said Tuesday, “Even in batting practice, that doesn’t happen!”

Lobaton, 28, of Venezuela, signed with the San Diego Padres as a teenager and toiled in the minor leagues for years. In his second full season in the majors, he split time with Jose Molina at catcher and added a switch-handed bat to the lineup, but he hit .249 with seven home runs.

Lobaton’s heroics was a sweet twist for the Rays. He had come on in the cleanup spot, previously occupied by Wil Myers, who was having a dreadful series, starting with the pop fly he let drop that ignited the Red Sox’ 12-2 victory in Game 1. The fans in Boston mocked him. He went hitless in Game 3 and left the game with leg cramps in the eighth.

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Myers was in the lineup Tuesday, batting second, and Lobaton was in the starting lineup, batting ninth. Before the game, Maddon said he watched Lobaton’s postgame news conference the previous night, to see his unbridled joy and hear about his “ice cream fetish.”

“If I can just keep hitting,” Lobaton had said, “maybe I’m going to get fat.”

Perhaps he was the inspiration the Rays needed.

“This time of year, we’ve talked about it,” Maddon said, “there’s so much serendipity to success in regards to who moves on and who does not. Both teams are good. A lot of good players on both sides. It’s intense. It’s pressure laden. It’s fun, man.”

SOMETHING TO CELEBRATE Jose Lobaton’s homer ensured Evan Longoria and Alex Cobb would have a happy birthday. Cobb, born in 1987, pitched five innings and struck out five, but he left with the Rays trailing, 3-0.

In the bottom of the fifth, Longoria, born in 1985, hit a three-run homer with two outs. He became the second player to homer in a postseason game on his birthday, joining Kansas City’s Willie Mays Aiken.

ANOTHER STEAL FOR BOSTON The Red Sox have not been caught stealing since Aug. 8. On Monday, Quintin Berry took a lead at first base, with the score tied at 4-4 and no outs in the eighth. Boston, which finished the regular season on a 39-steal streak without being caught, had stolen three bases to that point in the series. Berry pinch-ran for David Ortiz, and as Jake McGee delivered a pitch to Mike Napoli, Berry took off.

Jose Molina threw to Ben Zobrist, and Berry slid headfirst. Zobrist blocked the bag and applied the tag. It was close — replays appeared to show Berry was out — but Berry was called safe. Ultimately, the steal did not matter. Napoli grounded out, and the Rays escaped the inning. But two streaks stayed alive: the Red Sox still have not been caught in about two months, and Berry has yet to be caught in 27 attempts, including the postseason.

A version of this article appears in print on October 9, 2013, on Page B16 of the New York edition with the headline: A Ray’s Home Run Is a Sweet Splash of Drama. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe